speak for him who hath adventured far hazarded his life made a voluntary and free expence of his blood suffered ruin of estate bear reproaches imprisonments sequestration of the remainder if any thing were left of a broken fortune hunger nakedness and even utmost of calamities that could willingly have lain in the grave bitten and gnawed by those foul and insatible vermins which surrounded him so long as these miseries were common and now onely desireth to be revived by his Lords resurrection But necessity is no excuse for no man is necessitated to evil Let not I say their words pierce his sacred heart whom he loveth as his life nor let the Heroick excellencies of past dayes be summed up and disparaged by this final of that good subjects who have suffered with him and for him should any way endeavour releif rather than desire that he should now suffer for them For so many are the dayly and unexpected exigences of state that the great boone they expected if his Majesty were resolved upon it would no sooner be beneficial to some but it will would prove destructive to all Some make this answer We desire not neither have at all desired the exhausting of his majesties treasures for our satisfaction but still to have served his Majesty to serve him in peace and war now as well as formerly in war to manifest our continued fidelity by the honest discharge of some offices wherein are men imployed who have been of the cheif conspiratours and merciless spectatours of our long urgent disâ—â—â—â—es Granting all this for reasons where◠〈…〉 not perplex our selves nor 〈…〉 mysteries of State yet here 〈…〉 â—plain Time may recruit 〈…〉 â—t not spiritual Impa◠〈…〉 â—arm then an armed e◠〈…〉 â—continuance in it fre◠〈…〉 losses irreparable A 〈…〉 â—ged and commanded 〈…〉 â—at earnestly and still exhibit tokens of present as well as past desert Let prayers be offered up dayly that the King may be able and we may be assured of his willingness to do his servants good Let him provide for himself first that he may be the more royally liberal at last If there be any who think they have cause to complain let them more wisely bethink themselves that complaint is no satisfaction although it may be cause of delay The patient man soon ripeneth his hopes when the cold air of impatient speeches keepeth back the comfortable seasons Seeing they know their Lord to be of an incomparably sweet disposition but know not his reasons for what he doth nor most probably he their either desert or need let them not through their own bodies wound him for whose sake they once thought their blood vile and 〈◊〉 selves regardless Let their 〈…〉 beg but let not their 〈…〉 grieve him who hath irrit 〈…〉 nities thrown upon h 〈…〉 insupportable were r 〈…〉 assistant Let not I sa 〈…〉 his sacred heart who 〈…〉 nor let the Heroick ex◠〈…〉 be summed up and 〈…〉 of a causeless disgust We may consider our own condition and so judge of his Although some men have scarce so much as a will to do what they can for those who have well deserved of them yet on the other side others are intangled with infirmity and cannot stretch out their hands so far as their good will reacheth And Kings are but men who have the wings of their power many times so clipt that it cannot soare so high nor extend it self so far as it desireth The vastest and most unlimited power on earth meeting with a magnanimous goodness is too little and scant for the good which it would do As we cannot but be satisfied of the immensity of the goodness have we but patience until things grow as neer as may be proportionable to it we shall marvellously applaud the kindness and peradventure for nothing more then its delays by which it will become most magnificent and perfect There was a time when the cruellest of Tyrants made these persons of desert and fame in a sort subservient to a beggarly race of men of the vilest birth and condition Those dayes through Gods infinite mercies have an end which is more then any could by the rules of humane reasons have expected He who hath begun this good work will also finish it in his time Wherefore as a long expectation hath found a large recompence let the one be continued and the other will be compleated It is a great mercy to have ingenuous persons no longer cloystered nor miserable upon every wicked wretches lashes of conscience and merited fears to have alienated patrimonies return to the true proprietors to have many damages repaid with the bountiful favours of a most compassionate Prince But all things cannot presently nor as we will be effected God giveth to man to will and to do and maketh the will preparative to the act When he is pleased to give way other things which are wanting shall have their accomplishment whereas yet perhaps though the will be pregnant there is not strength to bring forth 2. LEVITY is the bane of prosperity although prosperity is the cause of Levity In adversity we can peradventure see aright but too much prosperity following so dazleth us that we are seldome able to look directly forward upon that which is most excellent and had formerly the signaâ— distinction of our Sounder approbation But quite otherwise what we oblickly glance upon we hotly contend for and maintain although ordinary reason consulted with affirmeth it to be the present dotage of our weakned apprehension Here as prosperity perverteth the judgement and introduceth Levity so Levity soon putteth us out of those joyous postures we are set in In the times of bitterness and hardship when an arbitrary power made us sensible of the misery of our deprivation of regal mildness when the just indignation of a remediless tyranny stirred up and cleared our intellectuals nothing was more desireable then the moderation of Princely demands which the juster they are be the more compassionate and sparing Then we hard the lamentable groanings of an oppressed people who notwithstanding professed that their sorrow was greater for that their contributions added nothing to the greaness of true Majesty then that they exchanged fulness and plenty for the pinches of poverty It was more grief that he received not who ought to impose then was any imposition a grievance Those complaints might deservedly have been commended as the brave commotions of noble dispositions but that those spirits are evaporated and quite lost What before seemed a gallant temper appeareth to be but a peevish invective proceeding from a disrellish of the griping carriage of the usurping Potentato whose title it seemeth did not so much displease as the way of maintaining it Blessed is he who condemneth not himself in that which he approveth The same persons now cry out What a King and yet taxes We hoped to have been delivered from such pressures and burthens What difference between this or that Government if the subjects purses must still
aliquid necessarium subtrahit quia duÌ„ laetus optatur ab omnibus cunctos contristat si probetur offensus The wit of men of this humor who are apt to be distasted upon so slight an account and to give distaste where Men of sound judgement do alway think it a glory to be liberal is to be observed from his judicious scorn of such base providence Who said Bark dâ— Arg. libâ— 4. Egregia Scilicet cura timemus ne non hostis cum saeviet plenas domos opulentas inveniat Repetamus memoria vastitates peculatus exitia c. Should God armed with his incited Vengeance prosecute our ingratitude and over-whelm our black deeds which although our late miseries should make us detest yet our language seemeth to desire with the crimson ruines of each others slaughtered bodies making each others sword to revenge the wrongs offered unto heaven it were less then the desert of so ungratful underweighing and inconsiderate contemning of his blessings Absolom had better have been close shaven and have been without that extraordinary beauty of his long hair then to have kept it to be the fatal accomplishment of his dayes and his hastened death And every subject upon second thoughts will acknowledge that there is nothing more commendable in a subject than a frugal care of himself and a liberal loyally that to give much and want something is far more profitable than expend highly and keep little or to endanger all by endeavouring the keeping of all The Apostle S. Paul makes tribute custome fear and honour to be the parts of obedience the respect to our duty and a true chearfulness do perfect obedience It is too too fresh in our memories that among other things the people clamouring concerning a ship money tax and some other inconsiderable grievances became proditor sui proditionis merces Assuredly they who Love to have the Head dishonoured and kept bare may not prudently comfort themselves with the blind Hope of a long safety And indeed to speak plainly none wrong themselves more then these especially if the ground of their complaints be well considered That what is required for the publick good they cannot spare from their own too publick vices Want of moderation in the disposing their lives and affairs begetteth other wants which proceeding from ill government multiply into disorders and then the blame forsooth must be laid upon other causes and the true forgotten It is a strange kind of imaginary happiness wherewith some men please themselves to maintain their own by impoverishing other mens honours and to delight in transferring the name of that crime upon others whereof themselves onely must keep the guilt The contrary is the more thriving way to impute all greivances to the right causes and remove them to consider the mischeifes to which men are exposed by extravagancies and for the future so to live within the prescribed limits of reason as to be able to do the publique good service without the least sense of a domestique injury If a giddy and seduced faction in an ignorant zeal could upon a crew matchless as in its most execrable villanies so in a most ravenous appetite as it were force an unusual liberality it is impossible that to pious subjects moderate demands and those necessary can prove offensive pressures A small thing indeed proveth a burden to the neck which loveth no manner of yoke and unwillingness striving although in a in a most smooth and easie yoke that neck is soon galled which with cheerfulness could have borne a more considerable weight Improvident impatience alway overturneth that happyness whereof our prudent Architect layeth the foundation and onely meekness will see that prosperity accomplished which it did peradventure rather hope for than foresee 2. BUT some mens hopes having flourished some time upon the rocks top are scorched with the beams of other mens prosperous virtues Therefore where they have unprofitably sown they will no longer lâ—bour but turn themselves to some other exercise And what after a discouraged hope offereth it self to exercise the thoughts sooner then discontent the friend of vitious mindes and betrayer of innocency an evil which may peradventure glance upon a mind fraught with virtues but never there inhabit or fructifie A wise man considereth that no hope fixed upon things temporal is certainly successful and a good maâ— knoweth that evil hopes ought not to aspire to fruitions but to be forthwith destroyed that there may be no more of the viperous ofspring Enjoyment is dangerous discontent upon the miss mischievous Yet is it better to have some wicked men sad because of their uneffected designes than all good men weep by reason of the calamities proceeding from evil mens unfortunate triumphs And discontent could not have made its entry into a sort of persons who knew more advantagiously to execute revenge by the common poysonous way of contumely then certain men who long hoping for satisfaction of some illigitimate desires but having their hopes frustrated are more known by their murmurs against then their prayers for the Government established And although religion must seem to adorne and sanctifie their whole life yet he who truly knew as the comfortable blessing so the assured way of an holy life exhorted those whom he would have thrive under Christian discipline to do all things without murmurings and disputing that they might be blameless and harmless the Sons of Gods Philâ— 2. And S. Jude an unblameable servant of Christ maketh it the mark that ungodly men are known by These are murmurers complainers c. Which because most undoubtedly true we must take off the sheep-skin and see underneath the biting Wolf the man who would seem innocent yet loveth nothing more than a wounded reputation and an afflicted mind But let such men seem once Loyal and still holy we know what they were and by underlooking their paliating pretences may perceive that they are in both respects still what they were They have put their new wine into their old bottles and do but dress up their aged falsehood with a gay and new fashioned hypocrisie They have their old devises and the continuance of their grudging perversness sheweth it to be inherent to their temper and made natural No musick giveth them such delight as the reproach of a superiour the recitalls of whose honour and worthy deeds although elevating good mens minds to an exceeding gladness soundeth in their ears with a jarring discordancy Nothing doth more discompose and distort their countenance then such unwelcome relations but the contrary doth introduce a smiling festivity And if any of them want eares he will make amends with his pregnant invention anâ— make a supply for the defect by the doubâ— diligence of his tongue Now where it reconcilable Enmity failing of the greate abilities is content with the weaker miâ—chiefes of a murmur and complaint the moâ—â— upright administrations are not withoâ—â— the cause of a disgust Even virtue whicâ— keepeth the
THE CAUSES AND REMEDY OF THE DISTEMPERS OF THE TIMES In Certain DISCOURSES Of Obedience and Disobedience Mark the Perfect man and behold the Vpright for the end of that man is peace Psal 37.37 LONDON Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the three 〈◊〉 in â—udgate-street 1â—75 THE PREFACE IN this dissatisfied Age not to be concerned in the throng of complaints were certainly very much different from the Mode Which esteemed inconvenience many shun with an over-hasty pawn of their credits taking up on trust any thing which the Vendiâ—â— of Novelties packeth on them Whereas we may justly imagine the quietest dayes to be the most blessed we still see it to be the constant humour of men to tire out Life in pursuit of those things which are onely matter of disturbance and by undervaluing carelessness to condemn the things which belong to their peace And if any man judgeing this course prejudicial to them who take it should with most inducing Arguments manifest their abuse he is commonly thought to be civily treated if onely scorned as a good natur'd Fop he be suffered to retire without farther injuries Which sort of Rudeness and Injustice hath indeed much of the Hectoring Bravado though little of generous sobriety which contrarywise with a dignifying condescention embraceth the man whose well-meaning counsels intend the welfare of those to whom they are directed Some few indeed there are whose resolute folly abominateth change yet will patiently and honourably receive those whose becalming Virtues and perswasions urge a compliance with men of the finest temper For although they make their reason subordinate to their will and in all things yeild to the guidance of fancy yet they will permit Reason as a favoured Slave to speak in the behalf of its friends and for its sake give them a protection from insolence Now where outrages on the one hand and contempt on the other are only mitigated by the inconsiderable kindnesses of a few courtly non Observers time spent in endeavours of reducing extravagant tongues into the due order prescribed by discretion may be thought as much abused by unreasonable reproof as unwarrantable clamours For who will think him speaking seasonably who speaketh to no purpose and most men will conclude that spoken to no purpose which is not entertained But when we consider duty obliging us to a valiant resistance of impietie growing potent we may also remember that reasonable perswasions may draw many out of the danger of the over flowing torrent and confirm them in the observation of what is necessary for their safety Where we have little hope of winning ground we may well think it meet to defend what we have in possession And although hard hap hath frustrated many noble attempts of regaining diverse who have revolted yet we may not desist through opinion that affections once alienated from the truth are afterward neither malleable nor melting Continued diligence may find some who being surprized through weakness would gladly kiss that hand which shall be stretched forth for their rescue and devoutly thank that pitying Providence which vouchsafed them the mercy of a Deliverer And if we hereto adde that men of the most unbridled passions accounting restraint their debasement are sometimes by their own stumblings cast down and that the wildest Beasts have been taken in a toyl we may not let sink our hopes of retracting some of those whose seemingly invincible obstinacy laboureth to depress them And of others whose rejecting what we bring towards a conviction is not out of malice and contempt we have undoubtedly less cause to despair For the Fort is more than half won where the Defendants think not the Assailants injurious and who can suspect but that reason must grow stronger by time when it hath a faint or no opposition BVT whatsoever may be the probability of success the publique clamours and deplorable distractions demand each mans assistance towards the prevention of the threatned ruine which is indeed justly to be feared but that more from the Complainers than the mischiefs complained of The vulgarly noised dangers are certainly least terrible but the Magicians who first raised these busie Spirits are the most dreaded evils whose ill acquaintance with the most horrid Authors of misery giveth the greatest suspitions of a subsequent calamity when their famed care is concerned in the discovery of any thing which may be called formidable Nothing is more fatal than the symptomes they give of a declining State to which when they pretend to prescribe health their very breath proveth poysonous and their tongues set on fire from hell purifie all they call corrupt by a sanctifying conflagration MANY not out of ignorance of their malitious nature but for the furtherance of some petty designs do promote or at least countenance these as Men of rare abilities imagining they can at pleasure stifle the flames of their kindling when ever their intended mischief is ready to break forth But these must with a continual vigilance observe them and peradventure may notwithstanding their nimble glances and perseverance in watchfulness have a cheat put upon them and although they may in the beginning espy the evil yet may by the slie Artists in destruction have either the buckets removed or the water wherewith the fire should be quenched diverted into contrary channels So that for want of prevention the ensuing industry may be useless And surely nothing is more ridiculous then the application of remedies which the head strong evil disdaineth and the too late offers of help against an irrisistible fury especially from those in whose power it was either to bind or cut off the hands which first laid together the combustible Materials of which the prodigious Devourer was once but the small and despised off-spring And if God should permit a success to the merciless contrivances winked at through confidence of suppression at will the connivers infatuation may be foreseen to turn into frenzy when they find themselves over-reached and mastered by their instruments whose punishment they must acknowledge to be merited by cloathing such wicked and dangerous persons in the garb of innocence and worth that good men may be bereaved of caution while their whatsoever proposals may be effected They who can call that sweet which is acquired by wicked mens assistance have commonly a time to gratifie their servants labours by a forced subjection to that Tyranny which had its Original from their own degenerous indulgence OTHERS of the greatest noise of tender Consciences have put on the soft resolutions of believing that all which beareth that title hath really what it pretendeth to as if it were impossible for Satan to transform himself into an Angel of light or that inhumane and unchristian practices should take their range under the reconciling names of tenderness and bowels of compassion Yet experience as well as the most blessed authority would otherwise instruct men of indifferent capacities if they would have recourse to either And it would certainly seem very
misapprehension holdeth the scales so cannot impartial Love have that reasonable liberty to speak it selfe nor manifest its value truly great in adhering to innocence and Veracity This furious Assaulter of United affections were the less unexcusable did it onely seek to separate souls and content with those impious breaches did not intermeddle with the Soul and its primitive Founder the most holy and just God Those faithful leagues which works of amity might contract God's goodness hath been pleased on his own part alway to make and for himself to keep in righteousness and truth His VVill is covenant instrument obligation and performance neither is there in him any dificiency untill that our either obstinacy or distrust have changed the divine property and made the flaming sword sole regent in Paradise Many it is true do think the discontinuance of a former to be a stop of all future blessings considering with Sense more than Reason and with both more than Faith the excellency of divine Operations To me nothing seems more strange than that any Man should be so ignorant of Gods love as to presume he knoweth the waies thereof which are so mysterious and abstruse We are capable of the knowledg of it no otherwise then by an unbyassed Faith and a constantly upright Hope and if we may call this knowledge the perfection thereof consisteth in not knowing But if we needs will busie our selves with the causes and become laborious in the search after Reasons for that which is above Reason the Understanding which by a devout ignorance was kept flaming like a glorious Lamp then endeth in an ignis fatuus and soon vanisheth not leaving smoke or smoother to express what it was or where it is That God is good is undeniable that he cannot alter is as true What a confounding mistake is then that in us which would perswade us that the divine Graces mutiny among themselves whereas it is mans seditious self only breaketh squares and forgetteth to be obedient God never desisted from works of Love and Mercy the whole frame of nature upheld by his wisdome and providence witnessing as much but maketh the smiles of prosperity visible in the darkest shades of adversity And although the fond Else Curiositie upbraid my stile endeavouring from Natures homebred arguments to invert it yet do I promise to my self that felicity as the best which I see hovering over my head in the day wherein I sit covered with dust and ashes In that surly billow whose gaping jaws receive me with no other promises but of destruction surely I seem Jonas like wrapt up and graciously hidden from the rage of a more tempestuous evil It is not alway a miserable thing to be under that which men call calamity God knoweth it and because man will not know it he converteth that to Evil which God giveth for good In this it is that we so much mistake Gods Love and prejudice our selvs by a wrong acception of his most gracious deeds If we confer with flesh and blood the Love may be questionable but how can flesh and blood discern it the influences thereof being supernatural Yet while we will thus seem wise we befool our selves of the benefit of this Love and cannot notwithstanding in the least manner quit our selves of that which we call a burden intollerable and truely render so for want of a supporting faith In this case is man too much burden to himself without addition but additions continually aggravating he shall not want so long as he continueth in it God indeed bestoweth affliction on those whom he intendeth for his highest favours and maketh them quickening provocations of a responsible gratitude and therefore doth he accordingly own the receiver as the receiver the gift Where the gift is welcome the giver is received with Joy Go thy way then and as thou hast believed so be unto thee Rest confident in his Love and thy mourning shall be turned into dancing Tears may be shed in vain an so are all those which in their birth cannot anticipate joy I will always if I weep either weep for joy or because I resolve not long to grieve SURELY I think it better to laugh at sorrow then to sorrow for laughter because I had rather have simplicity triumph then late gained experience to procure a lawrel although both are in their due places commendable I speak it to this purpose that afflictions are given either for trial or punishment In trials afflictions are but pastimes if truely used in punishment the cause somewhat altereth the state at first but the benefit is equivalent at last and although we call them in both respects miseries yet our life here were but a misery without them Although we reserve our selves never so warily from the Worlds illusions we are apt to stray but these heighten our eare duplicate our zeal and add new fewel to the former stock Through these chiefly have we the benefit of approbation here without which the Devil and his agents will take their liberty to ask Do ye indeed serve God for nought hath he not made an hedge about you In good truth these hot trials of our Faith do most excellently well order us in this life untill we come to a better Did this transitory life consist of joys uninterrupted until its final accomplishment we should befool our selves of the joys of the Eternity for that doting upon these we should entertain but cold and remiss thoughts of any others But tribulations endue us with intirest purity and when tried in these fires we come forth a refined mettal which runneth in the divine mould and hath uniformity with God And were it not that sufferings sent from God were for our good and do not only preserve alive in us the sparks of virtue but also blow up and encrease that warmth which hath long been raked up in embers and is scarce durable without the billowes of adversity how cometh it to pass that so many of God's chosen servants have set upon them the value of the highest favours Indeed seeing how mightily these do work for the good and how usually they do rest upon the lot of the righteous holy men do rather suspect themselves then applaud their condition for happy if their life hath at no time any intermixture of sweet and bitter Piety united with a long prosperity is such a wonder in our earthly pilgrimage that we may even thence be brought to fear that we enjoy the less of God the more we enjoy of his temporal favours without intermission or disturbance To joy in tribulations is not the meanest of joys but is the foundation of joys truely parmanent or rather the proper fountain of pleasure solide and eternal NEITHER need we fear the Worldlings reproaches when their scoffes rise up like a cloud designed to darken our day and which menaceth our security in the blessed light of the Star of Jacob. If they disdainfully ask us Where is now our God in whom we
hereafter forgetting whither those smooth paths lead and that their sweets will end in bitterness God is not in all their thoughts therefore their ways must needs tend to misery and ruine The fear of God is the sole firm foundation of safety God himself is the superstructure This alone proveth the impregnable bulwark of well being all other works of defence are but hay straw and stubble which incendiary misery's will undoubtedly consume and make waste of those treasures thereto entrusted So that they whose labours and confident care in bearing all for Gods sake was by these derided will be able to upbraid them with their hope and laugh at their calamity This is the end of corrupt pleasure Lo these are the men that made not God their strength HERE you see an end of their joy a joy indeed having its beginning meerly in fancy and which never offered it self as such without the lashes of a correcting and prophetick spirit full of contradiction And so do they bid farewell to that sweetly delighting vanity the issue of a beguiled mind extinguished and condemned to the shades of perpetual forgetfulness It is first derided by its hope afterwards forgotten by its parent How miserable then is that mind which hath had of these a numerous progeny A great mischeif remediless to the evil But the just have for the production of their joy the midwifry of intelligent Discretion which joy though frequently at first it behold the Sun of righteousness in showers doth afterward mightily thrive under the warm dispensation of his clearer beams Neither is it such that the mind might require occasion of thankfulness for the prescriptions of an oblivious discharge For the Joy is such as exceedeth all other and can alone give cause and desire of perpetuity This doth refresh the memory and still begetteth objects of its renovation God is that Pleasure which over-whelmeth all others And our Joy in him bindeth the memory to a willing discharge of its office For good cause have we to remember him the thought of whom ceasing our Joys are in a moment captivated our delights dissolved Whom that we may the better remember all things make a confluence of representments to mind us how good how gratious how wise how beautious how glorious how immense and what not our God our Joy is And how earth can afford such representments if a thing questionable is readily resolved For it is true that we have here but a rude and slight draught of an exquisite nnd unconceiveable Beauty However this he hath given us that we might know him that by this foretaste of him we might be urged upon most eager and impetuous longings for his All. He hath made the world but the shaddow or riddle of himself But it is nevertheless a shadow which pre-acquainteth us of a substance And a riddle it is which expounded manifesteth a superlative excellence and although in darkned delineations an incomparable glory The Sun while he measureth out a full day to the inhabitants of the opposite part of the Globe by the Moon and Stars imparteth unto us some scatterings of his light which present he obscureth both supplying and excelling them So doth God impart himself to us by the ministry of his substitute creatures that our understandings and memories might be busied with him in this his Proxy-presents of glory By this consolatory way are we lead to Heaven the Mind exercising it self with Patience waiteth the change or these weak lamps for the more inflaming light of the morning Sun Which until its appearance we anticipate by the remembrance of it promised by the Love of the Giver and the consideration of his present Gifts By the remembrance of what is past and the enjoyment of the present Hope consummateth its victory over fear We remember that what we suffered portended the fruition of what is now in our Love embraces and Joy sonnets and both past and present give an insight of the impossibility of our hopes ending in an annihilation IN the mean time it is one and not the least accession to our felicity to have done what is worth the exercise of Memory While we do well we have herein as well as other respects the upperhand of the rebel adversaries of good that our memories are no way troublesome in too too officiously presenting us with passages unacceptable For to them the pleasure is vanished the memory of evil adherent It is to them a still reiterated rack a continual recidivation into misery an alway reinforced mischeif the torment of the damned preexecuted It must certainly be for them that the grand Architect of pleasure Epicurus contrived ways to elude the memory But the sense of unfortunate sin will not be quelled with the recal of those more lucky nor will it admit of a mixture of delightful imaginations by which it may confound it self Their pleasures interrupted although indeed never real cause a gallish disrelish which is never allayed until the place which conceived them be washed with a deluge of penitent waters But the good man having no cause to be afraid of himself doth lengthen the joy of toleration by daily Meditation He entertaineth no thoughts but what are not only serene and calm but of highest delight To him nothing concurreth but what hath a true season of joy nothing but what striketh him into thankfulness and admiration of the Divine goodness He thinketh of nothing as to himself without God whose multiplied benefits he now findeth to have surrounded and advanced him to what he is in God's light seeing light for God having been alwayes good hath to his former goodness added this to lift up the light of his goodness upon him God hath run through his whole life with him and prevented him with the blessing of goodness the remembrance whereof reneweth him and maketh him greater in knowledge and contemplation So doth he make a resurrection of past favours and by the benefit of Multiplications Arithmetick encreaseth and enjoyeth them over and over By this faculty of recollection he hath the benefit both of what is and what was nay more truly of what is by remembring what was The consideration of God's miraculous mercy in his protection of him under imminent dangers and amidst dayly emergent calamities affordeth him pleasures agreeable reviewing labours past he admireth the inaccessible magnitude of that strâ—ngth which led him through them and most gratefully extolleth the Authour He remembreth past troubles not with an afflicted but gladsome mind and is a patient who never thinketh of his recovery without grateful acknowledgments of his Physician Escapes from inconveniences possess us most with delight It is an excessive pleasure to us to run over the storiâ—s of our Pilgrimages and we are ravished with rehearsals of past dangers even those most terrible when present old age exulteth in nothing more nothing more reviveth the aged or putteth approaching death further back We glory in our lucky misfortunes in our continuance unchangeable amidst
continuing vicissitudes in all our preservations but more abundantly in the Preserver Good deeds are his work and cause neither fear nor shame they leave no stench behind them when they go out nay they go not out at all for memory retriveth them They are grateful both to our selves and others and live still in both Whatever betideth us without they preserve peace within and at last restore it without too However in the mean time to their Authours they give vacation and make his life a continued Holy-day Never was the remembrance of a good action a grief to any the most wicked man It appeareth in a sinful person like a gloworme in the way in a cold night it shineth although it giveth no heat the sight is pleasing although it assord no light But a truly practiced piety maketh it all day within and enliveneth us with a celestial fire It frustrateth the malice of fortune and out liveth death so that it neither feeleth the one nor feareth the other It forestaleth misfortune by a preoccupation of the memory which it employeth in contenting representatives It weareth out trouble and conveyeth us past death whilest living by an assurance that we shall live beyond it When we are in our Graves that although unburied goeth with us still it being the onely peaceable possession of both living and dead So they whose virtues have been approved by durance and have escaped through the surges of temptations unwracked have the greatest titles both to fame and felicity and when they are pleased to reflect upon them can redouble them make them instead of a past misery a present benefit ALL this joy our memory worketh for us and this in consideration of God's mercy But his justice shall do as much and his Providence too in the government of all things When we call to mind the revolutions of things past in the World and the varieties which go to the composure of it we look up to that Wisdom which hath contrived and directed them to their several ends with a just admiration of his sage disposals with as just a condemnation of those feigned fopperies of Chance and Fate We may then find and know that all things happen by his sacred permission and will which as it delighted us in the sufferance so much more now in freer dispensation of sweets resembling the celestial Of all changes we may in much measure see and recount the reasons the books of divine Providence being open unto us We may among other things innumerable see there recorded the prosperity of the wicked and their confusion and admire God's wisdome who setteth them in slippery places to cast them down headlong to destruction The just are alway under the tuition of his fatherly eye although in all worldly sense cast out of his favour the wicked even in his prosperity is but heaping up the incendiary coals of his own destruction and ruine Although he look like one of Pharoahs more proveable herd fat and fair it is but to fall into an unsatiable gulph Providence is best commended at last Happy he whose care for the present did never put stop to the hope of his future well being for the righteous shall see the vengeance and rejoyce nay he shall also delight himself in the abundance of peace The fore knowledge of God's providence proveth Memories darling and Hope not frustrated though dead by fruition is revived by recollection WHO should relate this to the World but we whose Hope have increased by improbabilities and have outlived themselves Our seed committed to the earth and lying out their winter under variety of afflicting weather have met with their spring that after the confirmation of their roots the tops may have their flourishing and ripening seasons We who have half an age lived under the oppression of continued usurpations may now at length when our Sun is by divine providence mounted to an higher both degree and strength shoot forth into a timely viridity and through his seasonable and powerful operations of heat may be preserved and perfected for the divine husbandmans both glory and delight We have not onely out-lived our durance but its imposers too and through God's blessing our confidence and deeds shall in future ages have a pleasing and odoriferous acceptance when their names shall stink in the nostrils of all men yea even their own very instruments and adherents Each man shall eat the fruit of his own labour and his deeds likewise shall follow him Of which harvest none can be bereaft for every man's transacted life pleadeth for him his merit and claimeth his due in despight of whatsoever obstructions As God is not mocked we are not deceived But they who in our dayes so willfully deceived themselves by endeavouring to mock God which way can they now as they were wont cry up the truth of their Religion and the reality of their intentions by the successeful event of their actions their own arguments heretofore framed in a self defence were all of them wont to prove their self confutation this onely excepted Time and Providence those neer freinds to truth-seeking Reason have also divested them of this fraudulent pall and made naked to their shame the very secreâ—s of their diabolical practises God never ordered the course of worldly happiness so directly towards the righteous man's habitation as that it never deviated neither is wickedness in the acting alwaies unfortunate God doth not alwaies signe his pleasure with his immediate finger either suddenly advancing the right or depressing the wrong It was a commendable siction of Jupiter in the distribution of his blessings commanding an equality to good and evil Which gave a semblance as if he should favour corruption and vicâ— as much as virtue and honesty But hâ— knew if Virtue should be able to engrosâ— to her self the whole stone of the common blessings of wealth and worldly content she would be more courted and wooâ—ed for the train she beareth after her theâ— for the proper esteem due to her wortâ— and beauty We daily see that villany may be successeful Theives may oppreâ—â— honest travellers or an avaritioâ—s eye may by power and deceit out-reach a well meaning neighbour But God alloweth neither of the theft of the one or the rapine of the other Observe therefore the end of such they shall be taken in the snare of Gods wrath and fourfold Restauration will not satisfie And besides the the end of the persons consider their purchases from the known truth of that vulgar observation that ill acquirements are no inheritance We can now fight them with their own weapons Either they were mistaken in their cause or else prosperity in this life is not entailed to virtuous deeds They who so impudently or rather blasphemously boasted that God attested their actions and the justice of their cause by so many signal victories and permitting them from time to time to prosper in the world are now silent as to this vaunt Although they conspired
be open to the frequent demands of State-Collectours These and the like or worse seditious murmurings grate those eares which had sometime been delighted with more pleasing language So doth the humourous changling who preferreth himself before all the world yet hath not the wit to love himself aright shew the deceitfulness of his heart that although he sometimes speaketh well there is not a greater stranger to well-meaning There is no time or thing which cometh a miss to him who is resolved to let loose his tongue into any manner of language and of all other the Father of mischeifes hath for these his industrious Sons in the first place instructions to obloquy as the most plain and easie Biting is sutable to a malicious nature and envy taketh occasion to spit venome at any thing which thriveth These evils although in some respect we call them natural are yet but the distempers of nature and the depraver Satan who undermining our reason and taking advantage of our fluctuating opinions by certain diabolical injections sometimes utterly disolveth whatsoever in the whole man is noble and Divine and too too commonly bringeth it almost to despair From him come causeless jealousies fears and discontents they are his work and contrived for mans overthrow But God the Authour of peace and lover of Concord religiously invocated soon cleareth these mists which the Deceiver casteth before our wronged judgment While we adhere to the dictates of his sacred Spirit pride and self love the causes of discontens are removed With which whosoever is filled is apt to be strict in examination of other mens actions and to procure to himself trouble from conceits of disrespect want of love forgetfulness of worth and the like But meekness and pure devotion will work for us better satisfaction and give every one to understand it to be his duty to be thankful to him who giveth abilities rather then to be impatiently disloyal in the love of bewitching discontent and producing its broods of impieties I call it without injury bewitching it being that Harlot which calleth passengers going right in their way saying whoso is simple let him turn aside hither It enticeth none but the ignorant them it bewitcheth to its counsells and wayes Men who cannot hold a stedfast progresse in that good which they have opportunely fallen into cannot but together with their folly manifest a base incontinence delighting in painted harlots and evils disguised under the colour of good They who with their tongues sometime so much magnified the royal cause and seemed exceedingly zealous of the glory of God had even then as is most evident some other ends which they would more willingly pursue some castles which they were building in the air some upon the sands but although discoursing of it they were forgetful of the Rock whence they were hewen and the Heaven to which they should aspire It is an ill token of Love in those who pretending a longing for the Kings return which they could be content to purchase at any rate O the pity that so noble a passion should be so short liv'd and happen to meet with a floating habitation whether of life liberty or estate all temporalities and present blessings together that these should as much as others let loose their tongues to all manner of repining complaints and seditious murmurings that these should by the impurity of their words soyl that glorious garment of Loyalty and break the well accepted bands of sacred allegiance Oh? that they would but discreetly and to their assured safety consider from how blessed an estate they have run in how bad a condition they at present are to what danger what misery they post away Having that upon easie terms which they wished for upon any whence cometh the dislike or what occasioneth the grief The blessing too cheaply obtained is slighted yet the complaint speaketh greivvances and burthens intolerable These ways however they seem right in some eyes yet surely the end thereof is the way of death Undoubtedly the bacâ—slider in heart will be filled with his own ways and he who will not be constant to the entertainment of his prosperity shall by inconstancy weary it and make it forsake him The forementioned wishes and the joyes of the ensuing successe had perseverance crowned them could not have been sufficiently extolled But how are the desires extinguished how is the joy abated how hath darkness seized upon those temples of piety which were sometime bright with the lust of a coelestial fire To see a bad beginning have a good end is very much desireable but to have the former part of life bedecked with ornaments of dignity and the later disfigured with the strange contrariety of base and sorded rags is such an odious evil as maketh the eye which behold'st it almost hate the light by means whereof it had so unwelcome a spectacle Such are these who are either sluggish or false in the best time who upon victory obtained forsake the field and releive the vanquisht enemy For so it is The murmurings of those who deny the King due aid doth give heart and impious succour to the rebel who seeketh nothing but an opportunity to act over his old villanous commissions And thereby do these men punish themselves and the backslider cometh to be filled with his own ways By their clamours they wheâ— the appetites of some who were alway too sharply set upon innovation The murmurers corrupt the circumbient air and still the plague spreadeth further and further whereby his Majesty hath more foes and consequentry more need For besides homebred conspiracies hereby strengthened forreigners make it their pleasure to affront him so that the speedy supplies given their King is each Subjects Profit and Honour because the Kings injuries is the Peoples both damage and shame If I account the labourer worthy of his hire and him who reapeth and inneth my harvest to merit a recompence shall I not much more to him who by his labour care and armes secureth it in the field and garner return a free-will offering the purchase as I may in a soâ—â— speak of my continuing fecundity My reason dictateth no less to me but that it befitteth me Which when some pious assertors of the Peoples true liberties and happiness had well apprehended and desired a general compliance in a matter of such publick benefit and importance how have others who would speak boldly against the Kingdoms welfare in performance of his duty been extolled for their wisdome and care by those who would seem most affectionate to his Majesties just cause and person and also to the Peoples tranquility No man is his own or anothers friend who advisedly multiplieth or in the least uttereth words in commedations of busie and seditious disturbers of other mens good intentions or speaketh language which is sowre with inward disrelishes It was a very religious expression of that wise Senator who said Vniversos affligit Cassiod l. 1â— â—pist 19. qui Regi
Therefore will we refrain our tongues from evil and accustoming them to prayer will draw nigh to thee in an acceptable time when thou mayest be found that thy loving kindnesse and truth may preserve us at such time as evils do encompass us and the punishments of our iniquities taketh hold upon us Send O Lord thine holy Ghost and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity the very Bond of Peace and of all Virtues which neither doth nor speaketh ill but acquiesceth in the sweet enjoyment of thee This will make thy great Ministers government acceptable to the people and the peoples obedience exemplary to the world so that glory shall dwell in our Land and those who know not the might of thy Majesty will be conâ—â—rted unto thee who art the only blessed and â—ll-glorious Potentate King of Kings and Lord â—f Lords World without end Amen Our Father which art in Heaven c. CHAP. VI. Of the frequent desires of breaking out into Rebellion and the means by the Instigators used viz. Reproaches upon the King and Church MURMURING is a Spark forced out of an ill-disposed breast inflamed with Disloyalty and is a great sin when it is least but is excessive in itâ— call for Vengeance when as now it 〈◊〉 let loose against a good and gracious Prince And surely however by some meâ— applauded they are souly mistaken in the Commonwealth who steep all their humour in gall and yet would entitle themsâ—lve Patrons of Vnity and have not long 〈◊〉 when there was no dissention but their own desired been pretended Petiâ—â—â—ners for Peace For such as that glorious Martyr judiciously observeth themselves know not of what Spirit they are although alâ—â—ther men see it to be fire they call for Rebellion hath its beginnings in such whisperings discontented and doubtful words being cast forth as a Lure to draw some not yet fully fitted to such devillish designs and also to bring together the bloudy beakt-birds of Prey We cannot God forbid it judge so uncharitably of some men that their inclinations are so propense to slaughter and the Publick Ruine because their words make them somewhat forgetful of their Duty and the Reverence they should bear to Anointed and Consecrated Majesty and also to Truth it self which they torture to make their relations credible But the subtil resolved Rebel by this kind of words maketh proof of such as he hopeth by several pretensions to bring to a cursed Complication and having as he accounteth it luckily proceeded in this beginning he is no longer for dallying by privy Murmurs but disburtheneth his foul stomach by strong Contumelies and loathsome Reproaches as if his passion before wanted vent his words fly out like blustring winds which unsettle and make rough the calm tides of the peoples affections or as if with them he were resolved suddenly to put in practise the dictates of his rage he intendeth by Storm to become Master of whatsoever good his envious Soul wisheth ill to another Therefore having long acted Absolom's part in humbling himself and shaking the head as if somewhat or other in the Supreme were out of order he will not at length stick to tell the people that there is none appointed to do Justice or that knoweth Judgment He thinketh it no evil to dishonour the King in his Ministers reiterating the Old Crys against Evil Counsellours in his Judgment forasmuch as he hath chosen and maketh use of such in his Faith as if his word were not kept in his Disposition as if naturally unkind and unnecessarily exacting of his People heavy Taxes in his Religion being a favourer of Popery And indeed all those things which others knowing they therein glorifie God and do his Majesty right think meet to have published with the highest commendations of desert he will needs seem to serve God and the World in misconstruing and depraving But to men sober and judicious he discovereth his Religion and Life to be but a guilded lye And these pretensions methinks cannot but be too wel known to pass even the Ignorant without suspition For to answer no farther to their base objections look back whosoever pleaseth upon those of time past who because they would forsooth seem modest at first and therefore not directly to level at their King rendred their modesty so much the more execrable by how much the more we yet feel the smart of their blows who would make their King most glorious and only knock down Evil Counsellours It was never known that Rebels wanted a pretence he that imployeth them leaveth them not destitute of his helps and shifts which are not the coursest and worst contrived Among all his devices they find most advantagious to their designs the justification of their own proceedings by the contempt of other mens either integrity or sufficiency And so violently are they addicted to this plausible sin of Defamation that they are almost able to deceive the very Elect perswading them were it possible to the dread of those Commissions whereof they were never guilty to make the most Innocent suspect themselves With the 〈◊〉 then this violence for a while passeth currant for Pious Zeal and they seem no less than the Messengers of Light sent down from the Habitation of Holiness to reform the corrupt manners of the present Age and to reduce into a Primitive Order the Affairs of Church and State through negligence and time run into a deplorable confusion It is not indeed a thing strange that what they so hotly and yet so constantly obtruded upon the vulgar peoples abused credulity was so readily accepted and so long retained The same way being once prosperous they reenter and Good they now call Evil wherein they publish to the world what Judges and Reformers they would prove whose very beginning is with subverting the cause of the Upright and cannot thrive without the Devils Patronage and counsel that the filly may be reduced and unstable souls drawn into the grievous and fatal punishment of their promised inlargement and felicity A sad felicity indeed which must have such instruments and so horrid an entrance and passage which must begin in Cruelty and swim on in Rivers of Tears and Blood For their malice who by undue aspersions and unjust reproaches privily murder the Innocent is not there confined Experience hath assured us of the truth of the Wise Man's Rule that the words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood The Envious and Malicious are never satisfied with the triumph of downcast and torn Fames but build their hopes upon Piles of slaughtered bodies and seek to raise themselves Fortunes out of the Rubbish of a ruined Commonwealth Here hath been an old grudge nay an inveterate hate in an Enemy sometime pretending to Reconciliation but indeed to desires of new practises so strongly wedded that it may well from them be made a general admonition that every man do warily trust the sincerity of reconciled Enemies It is well
observed by one that the greatest disease of distrust Dalinâ—â— lib. 3. A◠〈…〉 and most incurable is in him who hath wronged his Prince whose guilty Conscience feedeth on fearful distrust 〈◊〉 just occasion be offered These un◠〈…〉 â—rits although they have promised 〈◊〉 sworn Allegiance yet sound Reason 〈◊〉 biddeth any too confidently to trust thâ—m whose refuge is Medea's Absolution Quae scelere pacta est scelere rumpetur fides What they perfidiously swear they will as deceitfully break Peace they love no longer than necessity compelleth them to it debarring them the opportunities of Commotions which they most artificially court and diligently solicite Rather than not commit their beloved sin they will tempt all occasions till they find a way to advance both it and its interest Therefore they violate truth obligations duty and conscience lest any of these should by the help of inquisitive fear make them see and pursue better things They who adore impiety making the successes thereof their Paradise must reer their conscience and do abominate scrupulous niceties onely using the name of good for the greater confusion of such as embrace the substance TO know whether their devises tend we must guess by the rules of contrariety their meanings having ever contradicted their professions They pretend to reformation but let such as have had the most aged experience of their performances speak plainly and acquit others of the dangers of fallacies We might well think the subversion of a Kingdome to be no good Physick for the Church therein neither that civil wars which do license misdeameanour can introduce good manners Their words had heretofore instead of more soundness infused madness into the people and too much action heightened the distempers of the Nation which convenient rest will qualifie Until they prescribe this they will never be good Physicians Give it this and each part of the body will thereupon be reduced to its order and duty When temperance guideth those who now trouble themselves and others we may have just cause to Hope for the so much discoursed Reformation But no encouragement is there for us to suppose that they can ever do others good who do themselves so much harm in being the professed factours of disobedience men who make it their sole employment to bring up an evil report upon God's inheritance and to stir up the peoples malignity against the King and Church They who taught the Israelites the scurrilous lessons of reproachful taunts against the Prince and the Arch-Bishop Moses and Aaron brought a plague upon themselves and the misadvised tribes yet did they pretend a remedy against some I know not what evils There can no plague prove so destructive as this spreading one brought in by sedition which to our great sorrow and shame hath been known to search and sweep each corner and part of these miserable Kingdomes and when after its long rage by discontinuance we hoped for respite by these poysonous blasts it threatneth anew its return and triumphs But God we trust will make these menaces to be but the regardless puffes of angry vanity For these Hopes we have ground from the rich authority of God's word which testifieth that He who hideth hatred with lying lips and he that uttereth a slander is a fool And then we are sure that he answereth the fool according to his folly God can do what he pleaseth and is most gracious and merciful whom we ought earnestly to beseech that he would not use these men as the scourge of our transgressions neither make us a rebuke unto the foolish But certainly such as have seen the event of those former dishonorable reports raised and kept on flight by the complicies of rebellion cannot otherwise judge of the same things again practised but that the intents are the same and would produce the like effects did not God's mercy prevent and frustrate He who rebuked the winds and the Sea roaring against the Church both in Christ the Head and the Disciples the Members who with with a Peace be still quieted the loud voyce of the disobedient winds and laid the rude tumult of the rebellious waves can soon subdue these pestilent tongues and he who doth Let them from proceeding further in mischeif will we need not doubt still let until they be taken out of the way BUT to see of what a various and partly-coloured substance Hypocrisie is composed would make any one much to marvel how such antipathies could be combined in one body to make a publique cheat Nil mortalibus arduum est Caelum ipsum petimus stultitia Men alarm Heaven it self as if they would O wretched Age pull God's Children out of his bosome and all pretensively for his sake who abhorreth the cruelty as much as he disowneth the service The Church being reproached and the King the Head thereof aspersed with calumnies they say it is all for Religions sake and Gods glory of vain are some to shake hands as that glorious Martyr observed with their allegiance K. Char. I. and obedience under pretence to lay faster hold on their religion These filthy dreamers how regardless they are of so grant a crime as the despising Dominions and speaking evil of Dignities nay of fathering the same upon God as if he took not vengeance of villanies but countenanced and rewarded them They cast out the name of religion to beguile some silly souls pleading God's Ordinance and will for what they sacrilegiously attempt against his Anointed ones as if that spotless Purity and purely perfect Vnity were too liberally divided into contradictions of its own writ and patern But he is the same ever constant and good God who so far detesteth such wickedness that by the decree of his dreadful justice is ordained for such reprobates a place of endless bitterness and torment with the Divel and his Angels company and reward suitable to such galiish spirits which triumph intortured reputations and bloody delights into which the weight of their sins will most deeply repress and over-whelm them Sin is a weighty evil and sins against Authority are excessive but the largest term is too narrow for this which capaciously compriseth a design against the Powers coelestial and terrene Into the inferior parts of the bottomliless pit where the dregs of treasured fury must this soaring ambition unrepented of irrecoverably fall O let us humbly Sollicite Heaven begging for them the rescue of repentance and the expiatory blood of that Innocent Lamb whom they Religiously revile and persecute Let not their reproachful words sound louder than our importunate prayers God is gracious who knoweth but that he may turn and have mercy upon them although their provocations have never so impetuously resisted his Clemency BUT although many whom they injure doubtless forget not this holy Office this Divine Charge given by him who did vouchsafe to be a General Satisfaction and the Saviour of all yet these would if possible discourage all good and by their continuance or
common practise of â—ickedness Then having told their tale smoothly the close of all is Ense recidenâ—â—m the Sword must instate all in order THUS although they seem to breath nothing but Coelestial Sweets and with the strength thereof to drive away the toxious vapours of impurity though God and Religion be their whole discourse which should be a token of their near relation to Heaven yet to the meekness of a Christian perswasion and the Divinity of Concord they are not inclined for the way of peace have they not known Gods Kingdome was never propagated by the Sword much less doth he Authorize Rebellious Wars for the Reformation of the Church So that instead of an inflamed Devotion there 's nothing but a burning Hatred lying hid under arch Hypocrisie instead of publick good avarice and particular self-ends God then forbiddeth such service and no man can foresee any good to follow Now to tell us of sincere Religion in the contempt of the Divine Law or to demonstrate the Vtility accrewing to the Commonwealth by a Civil War must be by such mad perswasions that none but men destitute of Wit and Grace can give or receive them It is very strange that men of any Natural Faculties should abandon themselves to the curse of a fruitless Study renouncing Reason to extol Whimsies and Vanity For if this behaviour with the most artificial gloss can be any other who can determine of the hope of Sincerity and the Crown of Incorruption Surely the people could not thus imagine a vain thing but that like Fools they have said in their hearts there is no God or that the Lord doth not see neither doth the Almighty regard it but let theâ— not be deceived for God is not mocked He who from the Throne of Grace beholdeth the Innocent with an impartial eye seeth the wickedness of the ungodly and that to the intent that he may bring down proud looks and the mouth that speaketh great things HOW dearly some men love Commotions and will not have reason to perswade but violence to obtrude upon mens Consciences not what is indeed fitting but what themselves desire Let them take heed lest troubles and commotions unavoidably seizing upon them scorch their bowels with endless flames even more piercing and intolerable than their Administrations of Terrours whereby they would seem to purifie the Kingdom But were these great clamours these outcryes upon the Government and Establisher upon the Clergy and their Protector such Truths as the Reporters speak them yet Piety resolveth men into compassion and according to Christs and the Churches both direction and practise prayers for them who make unwarrantable breaches upon the holy Commandment are the most usual Weapons of their Reforming and meek Revenge The gentle coersive of prayer for Kings and those who are in Authority doth undoubtedly move Heaven and bring Earth to a sacred compliance with its Majestick Founder sooner than any whatsoever compulsive Arts of wrathful contrivance Prayer and tears are of an excellent power making the heavy minds of the most disobedient and wicked to ascend Heavenward contemplating that compassionate Goodness which revealeth it self to them who were long ignorant of it Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not thy Law said a most curious patern of Holiness who thought this remedy more prevalent than any within the reach of his Temporal though Regal power Much greater reason doubtless hath a Subject to bear with his Superiour But if the Royal Dignity think not scorn to lay aside the Sword and turn Execution into mournful Intercession how much more willingly should every Subject put on devout Humility the glorious Badge of his Christian Profession which bringeth down the Divine Grace as fructifying showres upon the barren hills If these open mouths speak truth yet should they know when to speak and when to conceal it all truths being not to be uttered Neither indeed would any but a brood of cursed Chans immodestly utter to the world and with an obscene finger point out their Fathers nakedness Truly their Fathers open infirmity diminisheth not the baseness of their impudence and scoffs nor freeth them from the danger of the approaching doom which is stifly dragged forward in the Chains of such unnatural villany But prayer which publisheth nothing speaking to him alone who knoweth all things maketh a speedy alteration of hearts not so much covering the shame of some past miscarriages as transforming all-giving Grace to a sometime spotted and disfigured mind They then who contemn this way of Reformation do in vain pretend to zeal and uprightness For God having joyned his Fear and the Kings Honour together it is a strange fallacy in their course of life who dishonour the King and his nearest Ministers to give the clearer demonstrations of their fear of the King of Kings AGAIN were there so much truth in their words as might make the condition of those on whom they seek to fasten their imputations to need or deserve their pity and were these Correctors of others really inclined to act only within the lines of publick benefit yet sober persons would before they enter upon any such actions consider whether good may be obtained as a blessing whether one good may be introduced without displacing a greater good or introducing as great an evil to counterbalance it That most Pious and Judicious King very pertinently asked this question What good man had not rather want what he most desired for the peoples good than obtain it by unlawful and irreligious means It is the glory of every good man to hear the applause but withal by worth to entitle himself to the name of a Publick Benefactor No man is so prodigal of his Soul as to instate others in Paradise with his own Damnation to procure inlargement of Religiouâ— Freedom to a people by such foul means as the Purity of Religion abhorreth But no man can expect the Divine Blessing who to his actions hath not the Seal of the Divine Approbation much less can he sincerely love God or study Popular Redemption who loveth not himself but hath delivered himself over a Captive to the Enemy of all goodness and sincere felicity For a man boldly to stand up and bravely to acquit himself in the defence of God's and his Countries Cause is deservedly reputed a most worthy service a service as every where commendable so by Christians generally to be undertaken But then there must be no by interest twisted together with his for that is the way to weaken the help that cometh down from the Almighty neither any ways attempted but commendable and honest lest the honour of the Good Cause be buried in the infamy of the needless and bad succours and God give success according to the ways wherein they who pretend for him do walk and act He who entreth upon a Religious War must be Gods Commissioner and no way abuse his credit by exceeding his Commission or diverting into private Cisterns the
Humane Dispositions that men are commonly displeased with what their Fathers prized and not well affected to their own former pleasures Mens minds are seldom at rest but in alteration and change Which although it please the Fancy yet I see not where it leaveth place for Content without which I wonder at those who can imagine themselves happy and well Mens false sight loveth not what is best but what is new in the seeking whereof is all the pleasure For while its novelty perswadeth and the search taketh up time it becometh stale as soon as obtained and the thoughts are taken off from the joy of possession by the renewed desires of some other Upstart and untryed good In such varying motions men love to pass their time and are no otherwise easie than in this continual unquietness The reason of this the Tragedian hath Quisquis secundis rebus exultat nimis Fluitque luxu semper insolita appetit Sen. Hip. Prosperity maketh many men mad Such as have more than they can wisely manage despise what they enjoy and make their Pleasures abortive by unseasonable longings Continuance of what is good surfeiteth the minds of many who might have been long happy if they had known contentment But alas it is a Disease which creepeth in with Peace and Plenty to corrupt and destroy them that contentment is least known where there is greatest abundance of what Mortals account the chief Ingredients and Compounds of Felicity Where there is more than enough there is commonly least satisfaction and most inordinate desires But herein would not be so much cause of dislike if men did not so distast their present happiness as to undervalue it by making it the purchase of some certain grief The favour of the Greatest heaps of Wealth multiplicity of Honours and whatever else is most prized by the admirers of terrene flourishes and fading Beauties have by many who once thought these the only things desirable been judged things so inconsiderable that these together with their lives they have adventured for some conceited good which few others could view with approbation but most with amazement at the Seekers dotage Of which I truly am one confessing that I never thought any so mad as those whom I have seen raised very high by Prosperity who as if unable to brook that height have with brain-sick counsels hurled themselves down It is usual with men lifted up beyond what their condition will bear by endeavours to leap higher for more safety to fall past recovery Neither is it news to any but those who are distracted with the manifold blandishments of a bewitching Fortune For indeed it is no new thing to see men adventure to climb so far that when they must come down there is no descent but by a Precipice With examples of this nature the world is stored and if fresh ones speak not more than can my Pen I might be induced to enlarge upon this Subject What I have seen maketh me sad and many to complain and both the past and present damages which we have and do sustain by the madness of such as might be at ease but would not make me fear further evil and cry out Aetas parentum pejor avis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem Hor. Car. l. 3. If men sought or truly prized Happiness or well weighed the miseries of those intestine Commotions which they love to cherish to their own hurt this fear were causless The inconstancies of the Elder would not encourage the Younger to be dissolute if Constancy were thought either a Virtue or useful But men instead of constancy and gratitude for received favours by receiving grow more and more ungrateful and oblivious of the Benefactor If they mention his Name in time of necessity they forget it when relieved and never think themselves more injured than when too full and prosperous Many are not so repining in extremity as discontented in overmuch plenty God pleaseth them on neither hand either want or wantonness maketh them always troublesome and they when their wants are over wickedly make Worldly Happiness what Divines thence call it The worst of Evils Some have not been so much ashamed of a needy misery as they have since gloried in the scorn of their undeserved favours One instance may give satisfaction of this alway dissatisfied humour of the generality that is the benefit of Peace after the miseries of War Those unjust and unnatural Wars which as a violent disease in the bowels plagued the whole Kingdome were not so much condemned as the peaceable times and Government since the most excellent blessing of Restauration The Israelites had rather have the Onions and Scourge under Pharaoh than Manna and Quails under that meekest man Moses They seemed angry at a temporal deliverance and would not be happy under it but engaged themselves under a spiritual bondage It hath been no otherwise among us Forgetting the sighs and groans whilest under the Rod of the Oppressor they have been impleaded as guilty of the peoples calamity who were Gods chief Instruments of their Ransome and desire not more their own than the peoples undisturbed joy which that they have not is their own folly They will without judgment pry into the Royal Counsels and while they are only diffident of the intentions do openly calumniate the actions of their compassionate and tender Father with his great and wise Ministers of State Peace and rest discomposeth them and they are never more querulous than when they have least cause Contradicting all reason and desirous to destroy their present tranquility the Oliverian days are recalled and they had rather make brick with stubble than live merrily at their own pleasure without fear and plentifully as well as easily by a continuance of fructifying gratitude Thus was Peace disesteemed although no worldly blessing more desirable whose glory and beauty are the more ravishing because she is so like and near of Kin to that gladding Vnion which for ever maketh happy the Royal Subjects of the King of Kings Nevertheless her Graces and Endowments prevail not with the greater number of men for either welcome or respect And what between her Relation to Heaven and the publick scorns whereby she suffereth she is rather desired by good men than known to many Where she sometimes sheweth her fair countenance she is so absolutely persecuted with the foul provocations of wicked men that she soon beginneth to mourn and covering those radiant looks with a fable vail to withdraw her self from humane habitations Although she be a rare Guest and come but seldom she is assured of injuries She seeketh to make glad all among whom she is and whether to her true or adopted Children no Mother equalleth her Benedictions she surpasseth them all in Munificence Her kindness is incomparable and those who receive her she gladly enricheth Yet they to whom she hath been most liberal are usually the first who repay her favours with indignities For whereas the